Games.com Blog: “Poker Blitz: Big on the "Blitz," not so much on the "Poker"” plus 10 more |  |
- Poker Blitz: Big on the "Blitz," not so much on the "Poker"
- More St. Patrick's Day items arrive to YoVille
- Whimsical throne & other cool YoCash items hit the YoVille store
- The Chinese-American virtual trade gap
- Hotel City on Facebook: Getting Started Guide [Video]
- Breaking News! Playfish's Hotel City launches on Facebook
- FishVille swims in loads of new (and slightly pricey) St. Patrick's Day decor
- FarmVille Giftables: Dome Bush Topiary I & II
- FarmVille Dog Breeds and PetVille Sneak Peek
- FarmVille Long Eared Rabbit
- FarmVille Best of Mystery Chest: Find out what's inside *Spoiler*
| Poker Blitz: Big on the "Blitz," not so much on the "Poker" Posted: 17 Mar 2010 12:00 PM PDT  The first thing that strikes you about Zynga's new Poker Blitz is the bright ,clean interface. Compared to the small, dark, almost cigarette-stained boards of Zynga's popular Texas Hold'Em Poker, it's like a trip to Disney World. The second thing that strikes you about the game is its simplicity compared to other poker games. The quick, 60 second tutorial has a minimum of words, just a few big friendly arrows point at the games few easy-to-read buttons. Like Texas Hold'em Poker, each player gets two cards face up and combines them with five face up community cards to make the best poker hand. Unlike Texas Hold'em, there are only two players: You and a computerized dealer who always matches you in each of two rounds of betting -- one before the community cards are dealt and one after (you can also fold at any point). After each hand, your results against the computer are displayed in big friendly letters ("YOU WIN!" or "NICE FOLD!") along with some peppy sound effects. A bonus meter of extra chips increases if you've maintained a streak of good hands, and a variety of randomly assigned power ups can be used to improve bad hands, increase key pot sizes, or reveal information about the dealer's cards.  Another big difference between Poker Blitz and standard Texas Hold'em is the 60 second time limit for each round -- the part that that puts the "Blitz" in "Poker Blitz.. This means you don't have much time to think things through if you want to maximize the number of hands you get in each round. Luckily, the game displays a big "win percentage" statistic for each hand early on, so there's not much to think about until you earn enough experience point to access new areas to play in. Besides vibrant new backgrounds, these new areas keep things fresh by adding bigger pot limits and odd rule changes like reversed card values in Antarctica, or no cards below a ten in the Nile. The time limit also means the game isn't really that much like traditional poker at all. Yes, the cards and the basic format are similar, but the skills that make a good poker player are barely used at all. There's no bluffing the computer-controlled dealer. There's no carefully considered bet levels -- in fact, you're limited to two buttons that bet 10% or 50% of your initial pot each round. The constantly ticking clock turns Poker Blitz into less of a card game and more of a twitchy game of quickly reading cards and calculating win percentages in your head. That's fine for what it is. But it's not poker, and it's barely social. In fact, the only ostensibly social element to the game is a local high score list and the ability to store more "play tokens" if you invite more friends to play. These "play tokens" recharge slowly, limiting the number of times you can play the game to once an hour. This may seem like a drawback at first, but it's a good way to prevent players from gorging themselves on too much of what can quickly become an addictive experience. It also means that the high score tables aren't dominated by people who play for 22 hours a day, which is a nice touch. Features like "Build Your Dream House," "Trophy Case" and "Power Up Inventory" are all still listed as "Coming Soon" in the current version of the game, meaning we haven't seen all it has to offer yet. As it stands now, Poker Blitz is a fun little time waster, but I don't think it will have the staying power of a truly social game like Zynga's Texas Hold 'Em.
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| More St. Patrick's Day items arrive to YoVille Posted: 17 Mar 2010 10:58 AM PDT  More St. Patrick's Day goodies are now available at the Fruniture Store. Complete your plush collection with three new green plushies available for 9 YoCash each. And if you're a " cider" lover, you can buy the new cider glass for 375 Coins. Happy St. Patrick's Day. This article originally appeared on YoVille Lounge.
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| Whimsical throne & other cool YoCash items hit the YoVille store Posted: 17 Mar 2010 10:58 AM PDT Visit the Furniture Store for the latest whimsical theme items. As we previously reported, the whimsical throne has arrived and is worth 8 YoCash. A very cool caterpillar sofa is available for 8 YoCash with matching television and large coffee table on sale for coins. You can also go wild with a variety of literally huge mushrooms and flowers that will look great in your whimsical yard. As for all the maze lovers out there, hedges of all shapes and sizes are now available and will look great with the free castle and knight shrubs that you've collected from your friends. Complete your maze now! Many decoration items and especially shelves were also added and this time for coins. Head to the store now and enjoy this special YoVille theme. And finally, you are invited to rate the whimsical theme in the poll found here. Pictures and prices are as usual after the link.    
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| The Chinese-American virtual trade gap Posted: 17 Mar 2010 10:30 AM PDT  The United States' well known trade imbalance with our future Chinese overlords is now reaching all the way into the virtual goods economy, where China has a 5-to-1 advantage over the U.S. in in-game product sales according to a recent CNN article. China's 70 million online gamers are spending over $5 billion a year on virtual goods, compared to just roughly $1 billion in annual virtual goods sales for American social games, according to the article.China's bigger population only explains part of the difference, according to the piece. Chinese game makers are well ahead of Americans in allowing players to easily purchase small, impulse buy items and virtual currency with their cell phones. The focus on virtual goods is also more of a necessity for Chinese game makers because of stagnant internet advertising rates. Patriotic American gamers can take solace in the fact that we're still better at basketball.
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| Hotel City on Facebook: Getting Started Guide [Video] Posted: 17 Mar 2010 10:00 AM PDT Hotel City on Facebook puts you in charge of a small hotel, with a few rooms, with the goal of turning it into a five-star sleeping palace by adding and decorating rooms and expanding as you earn more virtual coins. Here's a video that shows off how to get started playing this adorable new game from Playfish, the creators of Pet Society, Restaurant City and others. What do you think of Playfish's new hotel-themed game?
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| Breaking News! Playfish's Hotel City launches on Facebook Posted: 17 Mar 2010 08:00 AM PDT  Playfish's new hotel sim game, which we caught wind of last week, has officially launched on Facebook. The game puts you into the shoes of a hotel manager and task you with building and enhancing your hotel -- turning it from a one-star motel to a five-star luxury palace. We're giving the game a thorough play and will write a review later; in the meantime check it out for yourself and see if you think hotel-themed games will be (along with city building games) the next big thing in Facebook gaming. Play Hotel City on Facebook >
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| FishVille swims in loads of new (and slightly pricey) St. Patrick's Day decor Posted: 17 Mar 2010 07:00 AM PDT
FishVille's getting into the St. Patrick's Day spirit (at the last minute!) with a series of new tank decor and background, which includes the typical -- Leprechaun, clovers, pot of gold and gold horseshoe -- to the bizarre -- a cupcake decorated with a clover that sits in your fish tank? Sounds like a big soggy mess if you ask us. These St. Pat's Day items also don't come cheaply -- most of these require spending sanddollars (which cost real-life cash), or 50,000 coins and up. We like leprechauns as much as the next person, but for 6 sanddollars? FishVille might be pressing its luck.  Do you think FishVille's St. Patrick's Day items cost a little too much?
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| FarmVille Giftables: Dome Bush Topiary I & II Posted: 17 Mar 2010 03:00 AM PDT FarmVille released two new free giftable items- the Dome Topiary I and the Dome Topiary II.
These items can be found on the FarmVille Gifting page. You can send or receive these items as free gifts only. Although they both look very similar, the Topiary I is giftable through Facebook FarmVille access, while the Dome Topiary II is a FarmVille.com exclusive item. Note: FarmVille.com exclusive means that you will have to access FarmVille.com to send as a gift.This article originally appeared on FarmVille Freak.
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| FarmVille Dog Breeds and PetVille Sneak Peek Posted: 17 Mar 2010 01:00 AM PDT As we mentioned earlier today on FarmVille Freak (see post), you can get sneak peeks of the FarmVille Dog by accessing another Zynga's game, PetVille.  FarmVille Pets Are Coming Soon Icon FarmVille's updates today, include official pop-up notifications telling you about the "coming soon" FarmVille Dogs.  FarmVille Pets Are Coming To FarmVille Notice The PetVille Dogs give us a hint of what breeds of Dogs we can expect to see in FarmVille. You can view these notices by visiting the post earlier today on FarmVille Freak and clicking here: FarmVille Dog Breeds Coming Soon. So far, the Dog breeds include:
Although you will have to play PetVille to see these notices, you will not be required to play PetVille to obtain your FarmVille pet upon official release! From Zynga Community Manager, Lexilicious:
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| Posted: 17 Mar 2010 12:30 AM PDT =FarmVille released a Long Eared Rabbit on 03.16.10.
 FarmVille Long Eared Rabbit The Long Eared Rabbit will cost 12 FV$ and seems to be a permanent resident in the market place with no set time to expire. If you missed it, you may have to look twice because this Long Eared Rabbit looks dangerously close to the regular Rabbit, with the exception of its longer ears of course.
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| FarmVille Best of Mystery Chest: Find out what's inside *Spoiler* Posted: 17 Mar 2010 12:00 AM PDT On 03.16.10 FarmVille released a "Best of Mystery Chest".  FarmVille Best of Mystery Chest Icon  FarmVille Best of Mystery Chest Notice They Best of Mystery Chest can be purchased in the FarmVille Market for 16 FV$ or farm cash during the next 7 days!  FarmVille Mystery Chest  FarmVille Best of Mystery Chest Information It promises to offer the "best" of past exclusive Mystery Box prizes. What did you get in your Best of Mystery Chest? Send pics of your prizes to farmgoddess@farmvillefreak.com and we will feature them on FarmVille Freak! :::Spoiler Alert::: The following are some confirmed prizes for the Best of Mystery Chest (03.16.10):
 FarmVille Freak Heidi's Koi Pond  FarmVille Freak Umm's Firepit, Alpaca, Porcupine, & Porch Swing
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